


A Man and His Owl

by momopichu



Series: A Dæmon's Tale [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dæmons, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Army, First Meeting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 20:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9287648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momopichu/pseuds/momopichu
Summary: It's been three months since he started SEP and Gabriel Reyes is finally being given a partner.





	1. Estrella

**Author's Note:**

> A Dæmons!AU piece. I've had this in my head for the last two months and I do have pieces waiting to be released. But as of this moment there are still blanks in areas where I hash out character development and create the dæmon world and it's dynamics. Please bear with me. Special notes and comments about dæmons can be found in the end-notes.

As soon as he laid eyes on the photo of the new recruit that was to be his partner, Gabriel Reyes couldn’t help the snort of disdain that escaped him. The simple white-backed photo showcased a young man no older than 24 years of age, his features were strong, well defined. Close cropped blond hair draped over his pale head like a crown - your average white boy was the first thought that came to mind. The only thing that stood out was the crystal blue eyes that seemed to look straight at and through anyone viewing the photo. With a huff, he tossed the photo to the floor to be forgotten. Perched beside him on the bunk bed’s ladder, Estrella ruffled her feathers indignantly.

“What?” Gabriel growled, barely pausing to look up at his dæmon as he continued flicking through the recruit’s file.

The female barn owl dæmon cocked her head to one side, black beady eyes narrowing at the report in his hands. “The SEP must be desperate if they’re recruiting meat straight out of basic,” she hissed - as was characteristic of her breed of owls.

“Yeah well, we do have a high dropout rate.” He answered nonchalantly. “And this guy isn’t coming from basic.”

“Oh?”

“Says here he cleared basic a few years back,” He paused, drifting his tanned sunkissed fingers over the lines of text. “Doesn’t say where he went after.”

“Great, so our partner’s a mystery man.” Estrella grumbled. She flexed her speckled brown and white wings, sprinkled with a generous dusting of black spots. Beating them once, twice, she brought them back to her side in barely concealed distaste.

Gabriel acknowledged the action with a small hum of agreement. Coming from the marines as he did, he didn’t like the idea of entering unknown territory without some kind of intel. That being said, he shouldn’t have felt so uneasy about some raw recruit joining the SEP’s ranks. As far as he was able to discern from the file, this… ‘John Morrison’ was no threat and did his job well enough. He tapped the end of the flimsy paper before flipping the sheet, only to find that the report had abruptly ended.

“Doesn’t say what his dæmon is,” He commented, one eyebrow raised, flipping the papers back for good measure.

Dæmon’s, were in simple terms, a physical manifestation of a person’s ‘inner-self’ in the form of an animal. Therefore if one wanted to know about a person without having to talk to them, one only had to look at their dæmon - with the exception of children as they had ‘unsettled’ dæmons. That being said, this allowed for prejudice and assumptions to be made with little justification other than the fact that someone’s dæmon was a certain kind of animal - but such notions weren’t entirely unfounded.

Most people in the army had canine dæmons of one form or another with the most common breeds being German shepherds, huskies and wolves. And like their animal counterparts, humans with these dæmons were good at following orders and worked well in a team - provided there was an established hierarchy. Gabriel had been of the minority that had other forms of dæmons when he first joined up with the military. Or more specifically, he had been in the  _ greater _ minority with a bird-of-prey as his dæmon when he joined. The recruitment officers back in LA had taken one look at Estrella and stamped his application with the bold blue words ‘Accepted’ without a second thought, shoving the letter with induction instructions into his palm as an afterthought.

There had been good and bad sides to this arrangement. Humans with birds-of-prey as their dæmons were usually destined for greatness -  _ Hell _ , every general he had met since he entered the military had an oversized predatory bird perched on their shoulder. So it didn’t come as a surprise when his drill sergeant had picked on him more than he had the other soldiers, it wasn’t a surprise that others watched him with a look that betrayed jealousy. It wasn’t a surprise when he surpassed all of them in both training and on the field, enough to be picked up by the Soldier Enhancement Program.

Huffing, Gabriel swiped the photo of his would-be partner off the floor where he had discarded it earlier. Scrutinizing the photo with a trained eye, he smirked.

“Kid probably has a bald eagle for a dæmon with a face like that,” He said

“ _ Please no _ ,” Estrella hissed beside him. The last thing they needed was another bird-of-prey in the SEP - it was bad enough she had nearly pecked the eyes out of Fischer’s sparrow hawk dæmon the other day. “Please, please let it be some wolf or something, I don’t care if it’s an alpha. Anything but another  _ bird _ !”

A laugh escaped Gabriel as he watched Estrella puff her feathers uncomfortably. He couldn’t deny that having a bird dæmoned partner was probably going to be hell for both him and Estrella, but the thought of the kid having another canine dæmon was just well...He examined the photo in his hand once more, brown eyes narrowing as he traced the man’s crystal blue eyes with a finger.

“Make a bet with me, Es.”

“You know that’s just making a bet with yourself.” She huffed, flapping her wings and hopping from one clawed feet to another. She hated it when her human had that  _ look _ in his eyes.

“I know. But how about this,” He turned to face Estrella, the owl’s heart shaped face was a pale beacon in the growing darkness, black eyes, shining like gems, never leaving his face. “If this...Morrison’s dæmon is a  _ dog _ , I’ll try that strudel you’re always badgering me to try. If it’s a bird --”

“Fine.” Estrella hissed instantly, a bet on food was probably better than some of the other things Gabriel could’ve chosen.

With that settled, Gabriel dropped back against his bunk, mattress groaning with the sudden shift in weight. Draping a toned arm over his eyes, he didn’t have to look to know that Estrella was making herself comfortable in the makeshift nest of shirts by his pillow. With his free hand, he ghosted his fingers down his dæmon’s back, feeling the soft feathers rustle and part with the movement. Estrella cooed at him in return, sleep tugging at the edges of both minds.

Right before the darkness claimed him, Gabriel couldn’t help but wonder again:  _ bird or dog _ ?


	2. Vaeltaja

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel Reyes meets one John Morrison and his dæmon.

Gabriel bit back the shock threatening to burst over his features. Estrella, perched on his shoulder was no better, despite her attempts not to ruffle her feathers uncomfortably, she had ended up being puffed up to twice her size. The reason for their discomfort…?

The dæmon that stuck to the legs of the blue-eyed blond recruit was anything but a bird or a dog. It was a cheetah. A  _ male _ cheetah. The large cat was groomed to perfection, spotted pelt gleaming in the soft early morning light, fur parted only by the deep gash that scarred a shoulder, the equally groomed tail was curled neatly over a set of soft paws. Deep set amber eyes watched the surroundings with a calmness that was betrayed only by the agitated flicking of the cat’s ears - one of them nicked. His human was equally professional in appearance, clad in a body hugging, military issued black shirt and slacks. His sapphire blue eyes were fixed straight ahead of him, clear and Gabriel swore he could see a spark within. Like his dæmon, John Morrison revealed no emotion on his features, hands clasped firmly behind his back as he listened with rapt attention to the Sergeant’s monotonous drone. Only the small bead of sweat - easily missed, if not for Estrella’s enhanced sight - indicated any sort of nerves.

_ A cat dæmon _ , Gabriel thought. Of all the animals that were available in this world.  _ His _ partner had to have a feline.

Cat dæmons were trouble, especially in the military - and not just because they were nearly incompatible with almost every other type of dæmon in the army. Humans with cat dæmons were almost  _ too _ independent, they didn’t work well in a group and more often than nought went against orders - not your usual soldier behaviour. Furthermore, many of them were known to be cunning and vicious, Gabriel had dealt with enough of them to know some even had a sadistic streak a mile wide.

Drawing a hand over his face, Gabriel stifled the groan deep in his throat, trying to ignore the fact that being a feline dæmon should probably not be top on his list of problems right now. It looks like he had his job cut out for him.

“Second Lieutenant Morrison, you’re with Captain Reyes,” The Sergeant yelled.

The blond promptly stepped forward, snapping a salute. His cheetah dæmon had kept pace, never leaving his human’s side - a sleek and silent shadow. Gabriel narrowed his eyes, unlike the photo he had spent the night and part of the morning pouring over, Morrison’s eyes were actually a deep cornflower blue permeated with flecks of emerald green. A startling surprise. But it wasn’t enough to soften his impression of the blond now that he had seen his dæmon.

A pale hand was stretched into his space, Gabriel glanced up with a quirked brow. Morrison smiled tentatively back. For a moment neither moved, Gabriel made no move to take the hand and Morrison did not retreat.

From her perch on his shoulder, Estrella suddenly gave an ear-jarring screech, wings flared to their full length and chest puffed up to twice its usual size. A show of dominance to establish rank and respect between dæmons and therefore their humans. To both Gabriel and Estrella’s surprise, the cheetah’s response was instantaneously, dropping willingly to the floor, ears folded and tail tucked between its legs - a clear sign of submission. Honestly, knowing feline dæmons, this was  _ not _ the response Gabriel had expected.

He also suspected his eyebrow was brushing the hem of his beanie by the time he grasped Morrison’s hand and returned the handshake with a firm one of his own.

“Gabriel Reyes, this is Estrella. Welcome to the SEP.” The words were mechanical, rehearsed.

“Jack Morrison, it’s good to be here.” replied the blond.

“Your file said your firstname name was  _ John _ ,” Gabriel said before he could stop himself.

“John’s my father’s name, I prefer something less...formal.” Jo-  _ Jack _ grinned.

Gabriel snorted before pulling his hand back.  _ Control yourself _ , came the unbidden thought. “And your dæmon?”

“Vaeltaja.”

If he had extra eyebrows to raise, he would’ve raised them. Instead, Gabriel nodded once, schooling his expression into one fit for military professionalism and turned towards the waiting sergeant. The man shoved a folder into his tanned hands which Gabriel promptly stowed under an arm. With a nod to Morrison, he led the way back to the barracks. For a moment he heard nothing, and he wondered if the recruit had even followed him. Estrella, picking up on his thoughts, shifted on his shoulder, head rotating back to pin the blond with black beady eyes; only to find that Morrison was no more than an arm’s length behind, Vaeltaja keeping pace at his feet.

Gabriel tried not to let the recruit’s soundless movements get to him but a prickle of unease snaked up his spine. Vaeltaja would be the third cat dæmon on this base after Zhang’s tiger and Martinez’s black panther, and if there was one thing he had begun to notice between the blond and the other two soldiers...it was that all three had an uncanny habit of moving silently... _ too  _ silently.

**Author's Note:**

> Gabriel Reyes - female barn owl dæmon, Estrella (Star, Spanish (female pronouns))  
> Jack Morrison - male cheetah dæmon, Vaeltaja (Wanderer, Finnish)
> 
> In the dæmon universe, a lot of things are stereotyped by the kind of animals they have. So (for example) if someone has a dog dæmon, it's usually submissive or prefers to follow orders, if it's a cat he/she is usually more adventurous and independent and so on and so forth. The problem with Jack is that not only does he have a cat dæmon, it's a large cat meaning it's more independent and vicious. Another thing to note that almost all dæmons are of the OPPOSITE GENDER, Jack is one of those that have a same-sex gender dæmon. In the books (Northern Lights), it's not clear why this is but it seems to have something to do with a person's sexual orientation. Gabriel's pretty much dead :)


End file.
